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Plate Number Eight—This cartoon, without title, published in Vanity Fair, on November 16, 1861, has for its subject the Union's relations with foreign powers. It depicts the President, guarding with sword and cannon a pond filled with trout (the Confederacy) in which three boys—England, France and Spain—are anxious to cast their lines. "Boys, I reckon I wouldn't," is his significant comment.
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Plate Number Nine—This cartoon, "Up a Tree—Colonel Bull and the Yankee Coon," was published in Punch on January 11, 1862. The artist, whose point-of-view is one of contemptuous ridicule, inspired by the Mason and Slidell incident, and having in mind Davy Crockett's familiar story of Colonel Scott and the coon, depicts that animal with the head of Lincoln, crouched on the limb of a friendly tree, and gazing furtively down on John Bull, armed with a blunderbuss and about to fire, whereat the following dialogue ensues:
Coon—"Air you in arnest, Colonel?"
Colonel Bull—"I am."
Coon—"Don't fire—I'll come down."